I transliterate the Hebrew words in my gemlog posts, to help those who have not studied Hebrew to be able to pronounce and remember the words. At my current level of profiency, it is best not to regard the transliterations as authoritative: some rules pertaining to things like stress and doubling are still difficult for me to get correct.
- I use Mansoor's transliteration scheme
- I usually do not transliterate multiple-word phrases
- In each post, only the first occurrence of a word form will be transliterated
- When א is silent, I will not represent it in the transliteration
- I divide words by syllable, using the dash (-) character
- I represent which syllable is stressed by putting that syllable in uppercase characters. If I'm not reasonably certain which syllable is stressed, I will leave them all lowercase.
│ Consonant │ Transliteration │ Notes │ ├───────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ א │ ˒ │ glottal stop, as 1st sound of "apple" │ │ בּ │ b │ │ │ ב │ v │ │ │ ג │ g │ like "g" in "go" │ │ ד │ d │ │ │ ה │ h │ │ │ ו │ v/w │ │ │ ז │ z │ │ │ ח │ ḥ │ guttural† │ │ ט │ ṭ │ emphatic "t" │ │ י │ y │ │ │ כּ │ k │ │ │ כ │ kh │ like "ch" in Scottish word "loch" │ │ ל │ l │ │ │ מ │ m │ │ │ נ │ n │ │ │ ס │ s │ │ │ ע │ ˓ │ guttural, no english equivalent†† │ │ פּ │ p │ │ │ פ │ f │ │ │ צ │ ṣ │ emph. "s", similar to "ts" in "fits" │ │ ק │ q │ "k"-sound from back of throat │ │ ר │ r │ │ │ שׂ │ ś │ "s" sound │ │ שׁ │ š, sh │ "sh" sound │ │ ת │ t │ "t", but some pronounce תּ as "th" │ └───────────┴─────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘
† The consonant ח is a sound produced by friction between the back of the tongue and the soft palate. Europeans often approximate this sound by pronouncing it like "ch" in Scottish word "loch".
†† The consonant ע is usually pronounced in Modern Hebrew as a glottal stop, like א.
│ Name │ Sign │ Transliteration and Sound │ ├──────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────────┤ │ Pataḥ │ בַ │ a in card │ │ Seghol │ בֶ │ e in pen │ │ Ḥiriq Qaṭan │ בִ │ i in sit │ │ Qubbuṣ │ בֻ │ u in pull │ │ Qamats Qaṭan │ בׇ │ o in hop │ └──────────────┴──────┴───────────────────────────┘
│ Name │ Sign │ Transliteration and Sound │ ├───────────────┼──────┼───────────────────────────┤ │ Qamats │ בָ │ ā in card │ │ Ṣereh │ בֵ │ ē in prey │ │ (Sereh) │ בֵי │ ē in prey │ │ Ḥiriq Gadol │ בִי │ ị in marine │ │ Ḥolam │ בֹו │ ō in lore │ │ Ḥolam w/o waw │ בֹ │ ō in lore │ │ Shuruq │ בוּ │ ū in flute │ └───────────────┴──────┴───────────────────────────┘
This is a confusing point since the same sign has two sounds. To make the distinction, I refer to Seow's paragraph on Qāmēṣ Ḥāṭûp̄ (p.12):
In a closed syllable, ָ will always be o; elsewhere it is always ā. In addition, a méṯeḡ (see Appendix C.4) may appear with ָ to indicate that it is ā, not o.
From the appendix referenced:
A méṯeḡ "bridle" is a short vertical stroke that calls attention to a noteworthy vocalization within a word.
E.g., חָֽכְמָה.